SAULT STE. MARIE — The Soo Eagles won their eighth straight game, coming back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to beat Kalamazoo 6-5 and take a six-point lead in the NAHL Central Division over Jamestown.

The Eagles have also won an NAHL-best nine straight home games with their last loss coming on Nov. 17 against Michigan. With a 25-5-2 record against opponents in the Central — top-to-bottom the best division in the league by far — is it safe to put the Eagles (25-8-3) in the top echelon of the league's teams with Amarillo, Wenatchee and Austin?

"There's no doubt in my mind we can play with anybody in the league," Eagles coach Bruno Bragagnolo said. "Am I saying we'll win every time? No. But I think we have as good of a chance as anybody. I expect to win, and the boys in the locker room expect to win.

"That's why we won this game, this team expected to win, even though we weren't playing our best and were down at the end of the second period. They've pull out a lot of games like this, they're very good at close games and they proved it again today."

They showed their ability in the third period with their newest player showing why he started out the year playing Division I with Holy Cross. Brandon Adams had his second hat trick in four games, scoring the game-winning goal with 2:24 left in the third period on a 3-on-2 rush after the Eagles stopped Kalamazoo's 3-on-2 rush.

Adams intercepted the puck in the defensive zone, passed to Eric Rivard, who rifled a shot on goal with Adams there to bury the rebound for the win.

"I knew he was going to shoot so I just went to the net as hard as I could," Adams said. "He had an absolute perfect shot right on the ice to the goalie's pads, and it was right there for me to tuck away.

Former Soo Eagle Robbie Payne, the K-Wings' leading scorer with 20 goals and 37 points, had a hat trick, his first since Oct. 30, 2011, scoring a power-play goal with 3:59 left to tie the game at 5-5.

Payne scored the lone goal in the first before a wild series of events in the second where five goals were scored in less than four minutes. The Eagles took the lead on goals from Alexander Taulien and Michael Crawley, then the K-Wings answered 17 seconds later to tie the game at 2-2, then Payne scored less than a minute after that on a short-side backhand, leading Bragagnolo to pull goalie Zach Nagelvoort in favor of Tyler Marble, who gave up a goal less than a minute into his game to Patrick Spellacy.

"I thought (Nagelvoort) was fighting the puck a little early with his rebound control," Bragagnolo said. "When he's giving up a lot of rebounds, he's fighting the puck, and that goes for any goaltender. He still made some big saves in the first. I think more or less we needed a change in momentum."